If a software error corrupts a database, or if erroneous data updates the database, a database administrator may restore the database to a previous uncorrupted state that does not include the erroneous data. A backup application executes a backup operation either occasionally or continuously to enable this restoration, storing each desired database state (the values of its data and these values' embedding in database's data structures) within dedicated backup files on a storage device. When a database administrator decides to return a database to a previous state, the database administrator specifies the desired previous state by identifying a desired point in time when the database was in this state, and the backup application executes a restore operation to restore the corresponding backup files for that state to the database. A database administrator may reduce the amount of backup data periodically stored to a storage device by configuring the database system to provide an incremental backup, which occurs only when files and directories that are modified after a previous backup is copied from the database's source device to the storage device.